Crème de la Crime

Blurb About the Book

You can run from anything... but your fears. When Sergeant Cam Fraser thinks the gang who murdered his wife and son are targeting his daughter, he relocates to the other side of Australia, not expecting trouble in the small country town where he was raised. But a violent, puzzling murder at an exclusive girls' college plunges him into a baffling and deadly investigation - raises menacing ghosts from his past. Taut and creepy debut crime novel from rising Australian author.

In his foreword to this fantastic collection Mark Billingham points out so many of the mysteries behind the decline of the short story. In these days of short periods of available quiet time for reading, it does seem strange that fewer and fewer short story collections seem to be published. Without or without a theme, I really like this sort of book - that mixes in well-known and lesser known authors. For a start you can play games with yourself and see if you can pick the writer from the style - rather than checking out their name. You also get a very direct comparison base from which to find a new author to follow. And this book has quite a stellar cast to choose from:

Not a bad line up in anyone's book, but what was most interesting for this reader at least was that there wasn't really a story in the entire set that I would say I enjoyed less than the others. In fact there are a few authors in that group whose books I've not picked up for one reason or another, that really made me want to remedy that.

This would be an absolutely perfect collection to introduce readers who have not experienced a wide range of the great British writers of crime fiction. It's also a perfect collection for fans of crime writing in general. And for those of us who are dedicated followers of the British Crime Writing Wave, with our lists of favourite authors - well try this short story collection. I'd be really pleased to think you'll find a few more authors that need to be added to that very long list.